Vibrational excitation and dissociation of a diatomic molecule in the diffusion approximation

A numeric solution is given for the excitation of vibration and dissociation in the diffusion approximation for an O₂-Ar (oxygen-argon) mixture. The time of vibrational relaxation is calculated, and also the rate constant for dissociation. The diffusion approximation describes the processes satisfactorily for a gas whose particles differ little in mass.I am indebted to B. V. Kuksenko, A. I. Osipov, and M. N. Safaryan for discussions and valuable advice.